Which team in sports will hire the first female GM? Looks like it's not going to be the Mets

By Kristie Ackert

Oct 23, 2018 | 7:00 AM

When Brian Cashman finally thought about hiring Kim Ng, he knew there would be some additional considerations. She was smart and baseball savvy. After having worked in the White Sox front office, presenting and winning salary arbitration cases and then mastering baseball's intricate business rules as part of the American League office, she was the ideal candidate for the Yankees' assistant general manager position.

Cashman had recruited her and believed she was the person he wanted to hire.

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"She was the best person to do the job," Cashman said, "but with Kim, being the first time we would hire a woman in that position. I had go to my owner and I did not know how he would react to that suggestion."

In fact, George Steinbrenner was open to the idea. That was 20 years ago. So who will be the first owner to be open to the idea of hiring the first woman GM in baseball?

It won't be the Mets.

Ng and agent Casey Close were not among the candidates asked back for a second interview, according to an industry source. Expected to meet with Mets owner Fred Wilpon and his son Jeff Wilpon, the team's COO, are former Rangers and Brewers GM Doug Melvin, Rays vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and Brodie Van Wagenen, the co-head of the baseball division at CAA.

Ng, the current Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations for MLB, would actually be considered a more traditional candidate than Van Wagenen if it weren't for her gender. In fact, she has interviewed for a GM job several times, including with the Dodgers, Mariners, Padres and Angels. She has also been mentioned as a candidate for the open GM job in San Francisco.

During her four seasons with the Yankees, in a rules-specific role, she dealt with salary arbitrations, waiver-wire deals and transactions with the MLB office.

"She wanted to grow," Cashman said. "She wanted to do more scouting and things that were outside the vision I had of the job. Different from what I had done when I was an assistant GM to Bob Watson. So when the Dodgers offered her that, we allowed her to go after that opportunity."

It looks like the Mets won't be the first major professional sports team to hire a woman as general manager, as Dodgers exec and former Yankees assistant GM Kim Ng fails to make the cut-down to three candidates. (John Raoux / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Ng expanded her knowledge base in nearly a decade with the Dodgers. She had more of a hand in acquiring talent, including pulling off major league trades and contract negotiations. She also oversaw their minor league system.

In 2011, she was recruited to the MLB by a long-time colleague, Joe Torre. Ng worked with the former manager with both the Yankees and Dodgers and went to work with him after he became MLB's Chief Baseball Officer.

Twenty years after Ng became one of the most noteworthy hirings of an assistant GM because of her age and gender, there is still no woman who has held the role of GM in any major American professional sport.

It is a glass ceiling that many think is due to be smashed by someone who has a proven track record, like Ng.

"I think she would be great," said Jean Afterman, Yankees assistant GM. "She's smart, she knows baseball and she has been through every aspect of the game.

"You once had to be an ex-ballplayer to be a GM. I think we have seen that change through the emergence of analytics," Afterman continued. "I hope that this makes it easier to see a woman in the job. And I think Kim is someone who would be great in that position."

We will see, if only an owner or team president would give her or another qualified woman a chance.